13 – 15 February 2023

This week saw us visit Herron Point Campground, a nature based campground on the shores of the Harvey estuary, just south of the coastal town of Mandurah an hour south of Perth. This area is well known for it’s waterways and the tasty blue swimmer crabs that inhabit the warm, muddy waters. The family has been visiting this area for about 50 years and in years gone by, the estuary was full of crabs. These days however, the numbers have dwindled which makes the catching much slower. We brought the boat along and went out a few times to catch those taste crabs. Unfortunately, they were a little illusive but we managed to get a few feeds. Our beautiful daughter along with Pete’s mum, dad, brother and our nephew joined us for the few days.

Monday we arrived and tackled the estuary for few hours. Pete & I managed to get enough crabs for dinner, but unfortunately, the same can’t be said for our fellow campers. Tuesday, the winds were up but we went out anyway. The wind chop and low tide in the estuary made it a wet morning in the boat. After having to push the boat out to a little deeper water to put the motor down, I got a bit wet. These short legs certainly are not made for climbing into boats! The crabs were also a bit feisty with my finger getting a little too close when measuring one of them. Who knew a finger could bleed so much! We also nearly lost a few crab pots due to some rotten pieces of rope. A few quick repairs and we were finally away. The crabs were hard to come by, but we got enough for some yummy crab sandwiches for lunch.

The evenings here are beautiful. We all enjoyed a beverage or two watching the sunset over the estuary and some kite surfers taking advantage of the high winds to scoot and jump along the water. As is typical of Mandurah, you do need to share the evenings with the Mandurah mozies who were in fine form, but not enough to stop us all enjoying each other’s company.